Proteges
by melissaadams22
Summary: Helen has protégés before but none like him.


Title: Protégés

Synopsis: Helen has protégés before but none like him.

Co-Author: None

Pairing: Magnus & Zimmerman

Rating: T

Season: 3+

Episode Spoilers: Season three episode Metamorphosis with some passing references to the webisodes and season one episode Requiem

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just took em out to play for a while. Thank Damian, Martin and the absolutely lovely Helen Magnus and Robin Dunne for their ideas and thoughts on them. Sanctuary isn't owned by me so please don't sue me. :-)

::Sanctuary::

::North Tower::

::Old City, Washington::

There were many reasons that Helen Magnus found comfort somewhere that most people would not ever embrace or understand, to a few it was because it gave her solitude and only those closest to her would dare to disturb her when she was here. To others it added a bit to the mystery surrounding her, the 'lady of the night' image that she portrayed as those young ones she knew would refer to her as in the last thirty or forty years or so especially and still to others they thought she was just eccentric, choosing a place of contemplation as odd as the very person doing the choosing but to her it was for an entirely different reasons...or reasons depending on the circumstance.

The overlook on the North Tower was a place of reflection and memory, a place of solitude when she needed a few moments to get accustomed to the life she led...when she needed a few moments to let the image that she portrayed to everyone else falter before pulling it back firmly in place for the world. At other times it was a perch from which she stood guard over not only the careful city she watched and protected from itself more than not, but the world...two worlds really. Tonight it was a combination of all of them and so much more.

She hadn't been kidding when she'd told Will that he had easily scared ten years off her life, there was a very big difference between knowing you were going to outlive all those in your life and actually living through the various experiences. The fact was that Will, Henry, Kate, even Victor would all die before she would and that she would be there...powerless to stop it just as she had been a few hours ago. Part of her wished she could say that she would be prepared but this situation had taught her just how unprepared she would be and it would hurt just as much as it had with Ashley, James, Nigel and so many others she'd lost much too young in their lives.

As the soft wind blew across her body as she stood there looking out over the city, not really looking anywhere, Helen Magnus's mind and thoughts were drifting as freely as that wind. She'd lost more people than even she could count right at this moment, family, friends, colleagues, lovers, protégés, patients, and more yet she could remember each face, each situation, each circumstance and each amount of pain as if it was fresh. That alone was her burden to carry and yet in all that loss there were those that stood out...those that would hurt always more than others, people like James, Nigel, her father or so she thought at the time.

Her first loss had been her mother, she had barely known her having only been a child when she died and it had been she and her father after that. The death of her mother had affected her deeply, particularly at the time she grew up mothers and daughters were close and yet her father was there for her even while dealing with his own grief. It was a few years later when a school fried had died and that had started a long, LONG list of those she lost who were close to her.

The recent situation with Will however had brought to light the feelings she had about a different type of loss, the young man now resting below her could have died yes and she would have mourned him but that wasn't what had happened fortunately and unfortunately. He'd said it when she spoke with him last before coming up here, watching himself locked up below and those closest to him pulling away. They hadn't meant to, any of them including her and yet it was invariably what had happened. She'd had no choice after he attacked Kate but to confine him and none of them blamed him or her for what had happened and yet as she'd told him that it was for his safety they both knew it was hollow words and yet part of her believed that he believed her, the same as he'd believed she'd find a cure and bring him back to them.

Helen Magnus had many protégés over the years, some worked out but many didn't and Will had real promise. A couple of years ago when she had recruited him she'd let herself entertain the thought that perhaps the day would come when she could hand over the day to day operations of the network to him and spend more time on the important things, spending time with Ashley for instance and yet in only a couple years so much had changed. This situation had proven just how much her faith in him was deserved though, and that was both a comfort and a curse in many ways. She was honored and touched that he had such faith in her, such understanding of the tightrope she walked and lived on and the careful balancing act she had to maintain day in and day out and yet part of her was terrified of that very faith. She'd promised him during that first meeting that she could not guarantee he would not die a horribly death but that he would revel in the adventure and that she would be there...with him, no matter what. In those things of course the older woman had not wavered, and yet she couldn't help but feel she'd failed him when it mattered most.

To this day the woman could still remember when James in his infinite logic had suggested she hire a protégé and that she had fought him tooth and nail on the idea, there was far too much work to do, she had no time, no patience to teach someone who would never be able to learn all that she had to know to maintain the careful balance in the world she did. Fortunately he'd ignored her enough to bring out a rather charming young woman, she'd actually consulted for Scotland Yard on a few cases; unofficially of course at the time. Her name was Emily and she had the darkest green eyes to this day that Helen had ever seen and had a keen analytical mind, Helen had only entertained her for afternoon tea at James's request and did not expect anything to come of it of course. Things had been going along pleasantly enough for almost an hour, she was a delight to talk about world affairs as she kept up on them while serving as host for her grandparent's various functions as he was what would be called the Mayor of one of the areas near London today.

Emily had desires to be so much more than society dictated for her but unlike Helen she did not have the opportunity so instead she simply became well versed on a variety of subjects. They'd been just about to conclude their tea when one of her patients at the time had escaped his enclosure, of course her staff had tried to contain it but it managed to get to the gardens. The young lady had seen it first as her back had been toward the house and instead of reacting, as most women would have, or rather overreacted, she had insisted that they merely duck and then helped Helen and her people to capture the creature. After that she had shown no horror merely curiosity and had spent several hours asking questions. As they'd settled in for a longer talk once her patient was once again secure she saw out of the corner of her eye James merely giving her a bow and a smile she thought before taking his leave. Before the conclusion of their evening several hours later Helen had asked her to work with her and they had been together for well over fifteen years before she died of influenza.

Over the next thirty or forty years there had been a few others, most only lasted a year or so before they were either killed or left her employment and it was right around 1899 that she found her next protégé that had proven to be worth the time and effort she put into him. She'd been traveling out west in the US to track down reports of a Krastertops and it had been a long train ride. Dean Wilmington was a fine fellow, a little less formal than his name would suggest and yet he had the oddest sense of humor...never disrespectful of course but simply odd. The two had actually run into each other literally and he'd insisted on dining her in the dining car on the train in order to make amends. Helen had found him absolutely charming; he could make up the most fascinating and interesting stories. A young man with aspirations to become a writer though he never succeeded getting the fame he desired, he was on his way out to Chicago actually to try and get a job on a newspaper running at the time. What had fascinated her were his stories about monsters and creatures, he spoke and described them with such clarity it was hard to imagine that he had not seen them himself. His stories also made them what would be called 'personable' today, trying to describe the behavior that he had them doing so that the reader or listener in her case never saw them as simply monsters by the end of the story; perhaps the reason that his writing never gathered the fame and success it should have in her opinion. As they'd departed company in Chicago after a wonderful dinner out before Helen continued on her way to Nevada where she meeting her people for the hunt of the creature they sought she gave him her contact information and told him that if things did not work out that he should and could contact her for an adventure that would put his stories on a whole new level. Dean had shown up less than a month later and she'd hired him immediately.

His death had happened almost twenty-three years later while he was out on a capture, the creature having gotten loose and punctured his lung as it attacked. Helen had been unable to save him, though she had tried and in the end all she could do was sit there and hold the dying boy's hand. Even as he drew his last breath however he'd thanked her for all she had done, for the adventure she'd promised him.

It was actually 1937 before she'd found her next protégé and honestly that was strictly by accident, she'd been in Germany actually having finished a conference with the various allied government leaders who were concerned about a man named Hitler and the influence he was gathering and his ideas. Her stay was due to end the next day and she was out in Berlin sightseeing actually when she'd seen a humanoid abnormal being chased by police. Not wanting to draw undo attention as the area was so politically hot right now but not wanting to risk the local authorities catching the creature she'd helped him to escape and had literally stumbled over Barney as he was falling out of local brothel drunk. He'd received minor injuries and yet had refused to let her attend to him but she could not leave him in his condition and two people helping a drunken man clearly hurt would be less suspicious than a woman and a young man with strange features walking the streets of Berlin so they'd picked him up between them and taken him back to Helen's room. She'd attended to his injuries and why he was sleeping it off had arranged earlier transport for herself, her 'patient' and Barney out of the country. By the time they he woke up they were out of the country going through the Swiss countryside.

As her mind drifted back to that first explanation trying to tell him what had happened, who she was, how they met and where they were even today a smirk pulled at her face. They hadn't gotten along well at first and Helen was perfectly content to see him back on a train back to Germany as soon as they stopped at the next station however circumstances changed. Halfway through the evening her 'patient' had a bad reaction to dinner and was not doing well, fortunately the conductor had given her a spare cabin to treat him and yet in true form Barney Lane had simply walked in and gotten more than he bargained for. She'd spent the rest of the evening between treating her patient and trying to convince the man that she wasn't some mad doctor and this wasn't a monster, by the time they pulled into the station the next morning the man had insisted that he had to stay with her or heaven only knew what kind of trouble she'd get herself into without him running all over the world.

Even today Helen Magnus had to smile back on that particular memory, he'd been the one protégé out of all of them that she didn't actually 'hire', a lot like the Big Guy he just refused to leave and became her friend and right hand for a long time. He'd actually been the one with her when they'd rescued Victor together and they'd become friends, though they of course acted like they weren't. No one outside herself mourned the man's loss when he died more than her now manservant had. He'd died slowly over time from radiation poisoning from exposure to a creature, Helen had tried all she could but in the end he didn't want to suffer and she could not begrudge him that so she gave him what peace she could. Like others before him who had nowhere else to go or no family they were close to anymore Barney still called the Sanctuary home in the small graveyard or the mausoleum on the property; unfortunately he had lots of company.

Over the preceding time between Barney and Will there were a few other protégés but as she'd explained to him a couple years ago on the Nautilus while they were fighting for their lives against that brain parasite that was turning into a raving killer he was by far the best protégé she'd had in decades. As she'd explained he first came to her attention when she'd saved him as a child but honestly he hadn't really captured her eye until he grew up, started publishing his theories and papers on perception about what he saw and when he'd recanted his story about the attack on his mother she'd known that he didn't really believe that.

William Zimmerman was very much the culmination of her various other special protégés over the years, he seemed to have it all minus the age of youth that only time and experience would allow him to shape into a useful tool. Even with that youth however came a deeper need of understanding, of perception and there were times over these past three years that she wished he didn't know her personally as well as he did and yet at the same time she counted on that. Helen Magnus walked a fine line between sanity and insanity and with just a gentle pitch either way she could fall on either side, her protégés had given her that balance over the years but none more so than her current one. She was confidant that should something happen to her that the abnormal world would be in fine hands under his leadership, that the world would be in fine hands both now and to the future.

Oh she knew he'd never agree, that he would say he couldn't do what she did and part of her appreciated that he realized how hard her job was and yet if he had to the young man who was her right hand, her trusted friend, her protégé, a man like a son really to her would step up...he would shape and lead the Sanctuary network and keep everyone and everything as safe as he could; even if he didn't think he could. Already she'd seen hints when he stepped into her shoes short-term. The one thing Helen Magnus knew was that the future of the abnormal world, perhaps the future of the planet was with William Zimmerman and people like him...who sought understanding and compassion instead of hatred, retaliation, death and destruction.

Footsteps interrupted her thoughts and she turned only her head, pulling the shawl closer around her and was surprised to see who was coming up and sat down on the edge of the brick beside where she was standing, "I thought I told you to rest, your recovery is hardly complete."

Wearing a windbreaker over his top half and jeans now that he was out of the medical isolation unit again, glad to be back in his room William Zimmerman nodded, "You did" he admitted turning to look up at her.

"And the reason for you not doing as I said?"

He smiled a bit, "Would you believe I missed you?"

Helen gave him a look, "Hardly Will. You should..."

"Magnus I'm fine" the man insisted looking back over the city. "It's just going to take time, like you said" his voice still a little hoarse but fortunately it was recovering faster than his DNA. "And for the record, I did miss you."

Silence settled between them, not an uncomfortable silence but one born of friendship and respect. Neither needed to say anything to convey to the other that which they needed to know. In many ways Will reminded Helen of James, in more ways than one actually and the friendship they had was something she cherished.

A soft voice interrupted her again, "You know this wasn't your fault" looking up at her?

"Hardly true Will" Helen insisted patiently, the wind blowing. "I'm the very reason you're in this situation."

"No" her friend pointed out, "You're the reason I'm still me right now, why I'm alive, why I'm not in a cell downstairs watching everyone I ever cared so much about drift away from me. This" indicating his hands and the scales still on his face, "This is the result of life Magnus, not your fault. I never for one moment doubted that you would find out what caused this and I never doubted that you would get me back...somehow."

She shook her head, "Such faith in me Will, it's hardly something you should have."

That made him scoff, "Please, how many times have you saved my life now? You're not just family but you're my best friend...I'd jump off this roof right now if you asked me to" seeing her look down at him. "That type of faith is not something I give away easily Magnus and believe me if you hadn't earned it I wouldn't be bestowing it on you. Yeah you saved me when I was a kid but that has nothing to do with this" her protégé tried to explain, "It gave you an opportunity to approach me but that's all. In my short time with the Sanctuary, with you I've learned a lot...I've been challenged in ways that make life actually worth living and if there's one thing...absolutely one that I've learned above all others" looking up at her again, "It's that no creature, human, abnormal, alien or otherwise...whatever they want to call themselves usually attacks out of malice. Even with everything that has happened to me I don't blame the creature that spread those spores, they were only doing what they had to do in order to survive."

His words made her heart swell with pride, there were millions, billions of people in the world who would never in their short lives learn that lesson and yet he had in only a short time, "That's quite the lesson Will, it's hard to learn."

"And it's hard to teach" Zimmerman clarified clearing his throat. The young man stood up then and he turned to face her fully, "You're a great friend, a terrific doctor, a marvelous human being but more than that Magnus you're a phenomenal teacher and no matter what happens today, tomorrow or whatever do not for one moment ever think that I regretted a second. I'm where I want to be, no matter the outcome and I know you'll always have my back and that you'll never ask me to do anything I can't handle. You saved my life and I thank you for that" then he carefully stepped over and leaned forward softly kissing her cheek in a friendly gesture. "Thank you" was all he said as the wind blew softly, but the words meant so much more than saving his life in this situation, she'd literally saved his soul and saved him from himself and from the world...thank you hardly seemed enough and yet that was all he had to give.

His words meant more to Helen Magnus than she could ever convey, people said thank you for a great many things as it was a common courtesy that some folks were loosing but still it normally was just something polite to say and yet as her eyes met his in the darkness, the emotion by which he said them, his history with her, his trust conveyed so much more in only two words and she nodded gently, "And I thank you as well Will for more than you know."

"You're welcome" and he squeezed her arm. "Now I'm going to go make myself a cup of cocoa since I doubt you want me having coffee and go rest, somehow I think you'd protest if I tried to go back to work already."

Helen smiled gently, "Quite true, come let's both go inside and I'll make us some tea."

That made Will grin and he carefully got down and then held up his hand to her, "Tea huh...we may have to discuss that" and so that 'discussion' began again as life again settled into the ease with which both were happy and accustomed as they headed inside.

For most professionals the mentor/protégé relationship meant a specific type of distance and closeness and yet the one thing no one could ever accuse Dr. Helen Magnus of being was specific or typical.

~End~


End file.
